登土山1 Climbing the Earthen Mountain

文、譯/周領(lǐng)順

新冠封了校園，校園封了學(xué)生，但封不住在校園內(nèi)發(fā)現(xiàn)喜悅的靈魂。于是，在和煦的春光里，我?guī)е芯可?，披荊斬棘，爬上一座被我稱作“土山”的新去處，喜悅感十足。

The Covid-19 sealed off the campus, and the campus sealed off the students, but it was not able to seal off the souls trying to find pleasures on the campus. Therefore, on a mild spring day, I took six postgraduate students on a climbing trip. We made our way through the bushes and reached the top of the so-called “Earthen Mountain”, a new resort I had found before. The trip turned out to be pleasing enough.

2 When my students heard the word“mountain-climbing”, they were not only excited but also startled. None of them had ever been told that there was a mountain on the campus, not to mention that the whole city where the school lies was on a plain region. Obviously,though I refer to it as an earthen mountain, it is a big mound actually, piled up for some possible construction. As the mound is so huge, it seems to possess the characteristics of a mountain: high and steep, ravines and greens. I love to climb mountains, which is something inside me. Therefore, a mountain-like mound undoubtedly assumed the magnificence of a real mountain and made my mountaineering aspiration come true.

2 學(xué)生們聽到“爬山”，喜悅之外便是詫異，別說校園里有山，就是整座城都坐落在平原上。當(dāng)然，說是山，嚴(yán)格地講只是一大堆建筑用土，因土堆浩大，儼然具備了山的特點：高大，陡峭，千溝萬壑，郁郁蔥蔥。喜歡爬山，是我的內(nèi)在訴求，而山一樣的土堆，無疑就有了山一樣的偉岸，部分滿足了心理上對于山的向往。

3 The Earthen Mountain is in a remote part of the campus. On ordinary days,scarcely are there passers-by around it, let alone any real climbing. Going through knee-level grass, our shoes were soon covered with dust, and our clothes got dirty. The place where the Earthen Mountain lies was once a construction site with the rumblings of machines and the workings of bulldozers. Massive soil from this piece of land, which was the size of a football field, was scooped out by bulldozers, and was soon piled up to be a small mound. The mound later grew into a much bigger one, before the bulldozers disappeared and the land was laid waste. The planned new buildings were nowhere in sight, leaving the mound lying there still. To dig a lake and build a mountain? Time passes quickly like a white pony’s shadow across a crevice.The Earthen Mountain took its shape but no lake was ever built. Looking around,everything appeared to be motionless.

3土山就在校園的一角，一個相當(dāng)偏僻的所在，平日里，連山的周圍都少有人經(jīng)過，更莫提攀爬土山了。土沒腳面草過膝，弄臟衣服不在話下。它曾經(jīng)是一處建筑工地，印象中是幾年前的事，聽到過機器轟鳴，見到過推土機作業(yè)，足球場大小的一塊土地硬是被挖起厚厚的一層，聚攏成一個土堆，土堆由小變大，之后就不見了那些機械手，任土地肆意荒蕪，任土堆巋然不動，任想象中的建筑物不見蹤影。或許是堆山造湖？但時光如白駒過隙，湖不見而山依舊，瞭望四周，一切都顯得那么寂寥。

4On my way to the campus, the mountain always came into view in the distance. In the frist year when the mountain took its shape, it was pure earthen yellow. Then, the spring came. The mound took on the color of the tender grass when viewed from far away, but the greenness diminished as one came closer. In the summertime, the mound was blanketed with grass, only occasionally dotted with bare yellow earth. When it was getting cooler, there appeared a few tall reeds waving in the winds and glittering in the sun—such a common sight in the fall. In the middle of winter,a severe frost turned it back to yellow again. After only one year, the whole mountain took on new clothes. It became a fascinating sight, and passers-by in the distance stopped to have a look of it.

4我去學(xué)校路上，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地總要望見這座山。土山堆起的第一年，土黃土黃的，春天來了，“草色遙看近卻無”；夏天到了，芳草萋萋，綠多黃少。天氣漸涼時，竟還長出幾株高個子蘆葦隨風(fēng)舞動，在太陽下閃著耀眼的光，總歸是秋的模樣。只是到了冬天，一場寒霜，讓黃土堆現(xiàn)了原形。只消一年，整座山就全然披上了新裝，儼然成了一道風(fēng)景，引得遠(yuǎn)處的路人為之側(cè)目。

5 It was the first time for the students to follow me to this remote corner. We came through a wood of camphor trees.The ground there was covered with layers and layers of brownish leaves,rustling when stepped on. The sunshine cast shadows over the leaves, creating the same beautiful scenery as depicted in the poetic line “the pine chilled by the sunshine”. You may have more discoveries when not following a trodden path. To climb “the Earthen Mountain”is to seek for the pleasures of discovery.When we reached the foot of the mountain, no visible ascending paths could be seen, which showed that few people had been here. Last year, in this season of fragrance of acacia flowers, I climbed to the top of the mountain and wrote the prose “An Ode to the Acacia Flower”for remembrance. I know quite well the path to the top. There would always be a path in the bushes where piles of dead branches were found. They were laid for disguise deliberately by the people who set up vegetable gardens atop the mountain to guard against any possible trampling. The acacia flowers, together with the rape flowers, flooded the air with fragrance, which appealed both the bees and us explorers. We fantasized that the winding path leading to a secluded spot must have something secret.

5 學(xué)生們第一次跟我走到這個偏僻的角落。我們小心翼翼地穿過一片香樟林，黃褐色的落葉鋪了厚厚的一層，踩在上面，窸窸窣窣，斑駁的樹影襯托出“日色冷青松”般的秀色。不走尋常路，才會有更多的發(fā)現(xiàn)，爬土山，自然也是為了尋找這份發(fā)現(xiàn)的驚喜。及至山腳，卻看不到上山的路，足見人跡罕至。在去年這個槐花飄香的時節(jié)，我不僅上了山，還寫下一篇《槐花吟》聊作紀(jì)念。我深諳上山之道，草叢中有枯樹枝掩映的地方必定有路，這是有心人在山上開辟了菜園為提防踐踏而虛設(shè)?；被ê椭筒嘶?，花香四溢，招徠了蜜蜂，也引來了我們這些探險者。曲徑通幽，幽處定有神秘的存在。

6 Together we climbed to the top eventually. Though we didn’t have the feeling of “finding everything small in the world when stepping on the Mount Tai” as that of Confucius, we still caught some sights which could not be seen from below: the terraced fields in the col in a zigzagged way, the planted oilseed rapes, hot peppers and eggplants by the people in a nice layout, and the acacia trees, the paper mulberry trees and some other trees endowed by Mother Nature in primitive simplicity. The white acacia flowers with greenish edges and the yellowish rape flowers were eye-catching while the naughty daisy and the bird vetches climbed up the earthen wall and went down along the ravine beneath. The miniature cliffs and valleys were like ghost towns in the west regions. Surely,what impressed us most were those species both appreciative and edible: the acacia flowers in buds being in their prime time and the panicles on the paper mulberry tree being tender though rarer.When floured and steamed, they are gifts from the heaven, I can say. Of course,they are not easy to pluck; the bushes around them, seemingly even, may hide traps. Making our way through the dense grove, the pioneer separated the twigs to let the followers march in a single file.Laughter and cautionary reminders filled the group with team spirit.

6 一行人手牽手終于爬到了山頂，雖然沒有孔子“登泰山而小天下”的感覺，但也看到了在土山下看不到的景致：擠在山坳里的梯田，歪歪扭扭；人工種植的油菜、辣椒和茄子，布局講究；大自然賦予土山的槐樹、構(gòu)樹和雜樹，原始古樸。白中泛綠的洋槐花和淡黃素雅的油菜花最為搶眼，而頑皮的小雛菊和野豌豆，爬上土壁，又下溝壑。縮微版的絕壁深谷，頗有西域鬼城的范兒。當(dāng)然，印象最深的還是能看又能吃的那些物種：摘一些野槐花，含苞待放，正是最好吃的形態(tài)；摘一些構(gòu)蒲穗，鮮嫩的還剩一些，拌上面粉蒸著吃，只道上天恩賜。當(dāng)然，采摘不易，看似平坦的草叢，有可能掩映著陷阱；一人分開樹叢，后隊魚貫前行。笑聲和著提醒，莫不洋溢著團(tuán)隊精神。

7摸索著下了山，才見衣服粘了黃花，鞋子蒙了細(xì)土。沿途有景處處春，情由心生上眉梢。 □

7Groping downward the mountain,we found yellow flower petals on our clothes and our shoes were covered with fnie dust. Seeking for springtime sceneries along the way, your face would glow with radiance. ■